Sears’s Eddie Lampert just netted $114 million without selling a single lawn mower or power drill.

The billionaire chairman and CEO of Sears Holdings, which also owns Kmart, is betting that the value of the company’s real estate will keep the big-box giants humming even as the troubled retailer has gone a decade without righting plummeting sales.

Sears and mall operator Simon Properties have formed a joint venture, with the retailer contributing 10 of its stores and Simon plunking down $114 million for its 50 percent stake in the deal.

Announced Monday, it’s the second such deal Lampert has engineered in a month and industry experts say the strategy has merit. The company’s shares closed at $43.24, up nearly 1 percent.

“The stores continue to bleed red ink, but this is a clear path to profitability and making money,” said Craig Johnson, president of Customer Growth Partners. “The idea that Sears isn’t making any money as a retailer but is making money as a landlord is creative.”

Sears owns outright 700 of its 1,700 stores, a handful of which have begun to lease out part of their space to other more successful retailers, such as Forever 21, Dick’s Sporting Goods and Whole Foods supermarkets.

As Lampert put it in a recent company blog post, “Some of our stores are simply too large for our needs.” A company spokesman said some of the 10 stores in the Simon joint venture could be leased to other retailers.

“In stores where we subdivide the space, not only do you get the benefit of the revenue from the lease,” he said, “but you get more foot traffic as well.”

Sears has lost $3.5 billion over the 10 years Lampert has owned it — all in the last four years. Last year Lampert closed more than 200 underperforming Kmart and Sears stores.